Search for China's top model begins

China's Travel Channel will produce a local version of America's Next Top Model, hosted by singer Shang Wenjie. Shang will fill the role taken by Tyra Banks in the show's United States version. Banks and Chinese superstar Gong Li will join the reality TV show as guest stars. The show will cast 14 aspirants in the first season and record their antics living together in a villa and their work on the catwalk. After two months of filming, the winning contestant will sign with an international modeling agency and the Travel Channel. The weekly show will be broadcast on the Travel Channel at 10 pm on Oct 12. The first season has 12 episodes.

Doctor's work makes the big screen

The story of Li Suzhi, an army doctor who served in the Tibet autonomous region for 37 years, debuted on cinema screens on Sept 7. Li, president of the General Hospital of the Tibet Military Region, has worked at the hospital since 1976 when he was 22. He has led teams of medical professionals to trek to the most remote areas of Tibet, providing free treatment to more than 1 million herdsmen, soldiers and monks. He has also developed 15 kinds of medicine to treat particular diseases affecting people living on plateaus. The film, titled A Doctor, A General, also stars Liu Zhibing, a military officer. It is directed by Ma Huilei.

Calligrapher featured on US stamps

The US Postal Service has issued a series of stamps featuring Chinese calligrapher Liu Rengang and Liu's works. The collection includes a sheet of 20 stamps with Liu's works, a set of 10 with Liu's calligraphy and a set of five with Liu's images. Liu is a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association. He is accomplished in the styles of well-known master calligraphers Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317-420). In 2010, Liu's calligraphy work, The Lament by Qu Yuan from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), was acquired by the US Huntington Library and placed in their permanent collection.

Documentary about war years

Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio announced they will shoot a series of historical documentaries titled The Eighth Route Army Office, during the recent booting ceremony held in the Great Hall of the People. The 12-episode documentary, set in the late-1930s when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China cooperated, aims to show the CPC's unremitting efforts to consolidate and develop the national united front to the resistance against the invading Japanese army. Produced to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), the finished work is expected to be on show next year.

Intl folk art festival held in Yichang

Hundreds of artists from 13 countries have gathered in China to celebrate the Ninth China International Folk Art Festival held from Sept 13-25. With the themes of developing folk art, promoting friendship and peace, the event focuses on folk and ethnic art as expressed through dance and music. As the only international folk art festival celebrated in China, the activity is held every three years to promote cross-border cultural communication. Co-organized by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the government of Hubei province, this year's event is held in Yichang of Hubei province and Beijing, with Yichang as its main venue.

China Daily

(China Daily USA 09/17/2013 page16)